University of Wyoming will host Navajo poet

Sherwin Bitsui, an award winning writer and poet, will hold a reading at the University of Wyoming later this week. Bitsui grew up on the Navajo Reservation, and his poetry features themes of the natural world.

David Romtvedt is a creative writing professor at UW. He says that Bitsui’s poetry is exciting, in part, because of the variety of influences he’s had as a writer.

“He’s very aware of the story telling tradition that came, he says, from his family, and that has shaped how he became a poet—coupled he says, with being a young Indian kid, listening to rock and roll on the radio. So that rock and roll lyrics AND his grandparents’ voices in Navajo are the influences that got him going toward poetry,” Romtvedt added.

The public reading will be held in the Wyoming Union Senate Chambers at 7p.m. on Friday. It is free and open to the public and will include a book signing.